6. a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’
7. And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’
8. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
10. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
12. Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
14. Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.
15. But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”
16. Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
17. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.
18. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.
19. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
20. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
21. “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.
22. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.